Acting Like Jesus Series

Sunday January 5th, 2003

River of Life Ministries Pastor Michael West

Series: Spiritual Authority Part One

Sermon: Acting Like Jesus

Scripture: Romans 12:21 / Ephesians 2

Greatness does not come from position and titles. True greatness comes from being a servant.

Romans 12:21

Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. We are told not to do evil to those who do evil to you Be good to our enemies, Bless them, it’s the most unnatural thing to do for us, but we overcome evil and it’s effects by being good to someone else,

When the devil comes against you, go out and do good

When your down, call someone and encourage them

If you had a blow to your finances, go find something in your house and give it to someone to bless them. But for it to count, you must do your good works out of a genuine sincere heart.

We don’t see enough good works in the body today. All we seem to have is what’s in it for me Christianity. If your petition outweighs your praise, you need to reevaluate some things like the definite killer of prayer called selfishness. We don’t defeat the devil by acting like him, WWJD? Do that and you will be an over-comer.

How to have true spiritual power and authority? You are probably thinking I didn’t come here to find out how to be good to somebody else, I came to find out about the blessing for my own life…But I am telling you that, it just doesn’t come the way you think it should...

Acts 10:38

What did Jesus do? He did Good! He was anointed to do good. He was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.

Today is a good day to examine your life and get honest with yourself, forget what everybody else is doing to you, what they aren’t doing for you, forget about what God isn’t doing for you and forget about what the devil is doing to you and concentrate on one thing today, am I making a difference in anybody else’s life, what am I doing to make somebody else’s life better? This is not under condemnation, but to stir you up to good works, to encourage you to do good works.

If your worried about being a do-gooder, being a goody two shoes and that someone might say that, then say thank you, that is what I’m striving for! Why do you think Satan does that? He doesn’t want you to do good. We all want to be anointed, but do we really know what we want to be anointed for.

Here’s 5 things that prove we have the Holy Spirit in our life:

It’s not how many TV preacher names you know, authority is not charisma or drawing large crowds, it’s not loud speaking or who sits on the front row or has the front parking space.

1) People’s lives will change for the better wherever you go you don’t have to be a preacher

2) Your prayers are answered—when you pray something happens—

It’s fun to hear someone say what God did because of your prayer whether you get the credit or not, it’s not about you getting the credit, it’s about what God has done, so what if someone else gets the credit. When are we going to learn to live before God. He sees everything. Doesn’t the Word say what we do in secret, God rewards us in the open?

3) You won’t be dominated by the devil—

Your talk about the devil will change from what he is always doing to what God is doing. We miss too much when we are always giving the devil the credit. We are known by our fruit, not our gifts. Sometimes we are too concerned about spiritual gifts rather than spiritual fruit.

I don’t have much to say about the devil anymore and I don’t mean that in a prideful way, I have a relationship with Jesus and don’t have time to waste on the devil anymore.

Let’s talk about what God is doing! Well, the devil stole my joy. Well, don’t let him have it. He can’t have it if it isn’t misplaced. He can’t get our joy unless it’s tied to something else—like the world.

Joy is not happiness because Happiness is based on what happens.

Joy is based on Jesus—peace in the midst of the storm. Yes the devil will set you up, and you don’t have to be upset, but you don’t have to give it to him unless your peace is misplaced.